Some educators believe that “bright children don’t need any special help; after all, they already have so many things going for them.  The reality is that gifted children’s educational needs arise directly from their strengths; it is precisely because these children are rapid and advanced learners that they need specialized learning opportunities.  They are exceptional children, and they need exceptional services in the same way that children with learning difficulties are exceptional children and need special services and attention.  A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children, James T. Webb, et.al. (2007).

It is most often up to the parent to educate themselves and advocate for the best educational alternatives for their gifted children.  Each school has different options, from differentiated classrooms, acceleration, grade-skipping, cluster grouping, enrichment in the classroom and in resource rooms, and self-contained full-time gifted programs.  Some states allow children to go to school part-time and to homeschool part-time.  Some families choose to homeschool full-time.

The research that goes into deciding how to educate your gifted child can be overwhelming.  And, you may need to evaluate your choice on an ongoing basis to determine whether your current plan is still working.  

Video-production

My kids are writing and producing a video of an advertisement for their favorite toys. They get very excited about this. It was much easier to get my son to write about his Nerf Blaster and how wonderful it is, than to do some of the other writing exercises in their textbook. Writing comes easier, even when a few drafts are needed. They have learned a lot about what commercials are designed to do, how to stage the actions, write the script and direct the video shots. And, it was done with enthusiasm and increasingly more creativity as we went through several versions. I just had to manage my own feelings of the inevitable chaos (from my perspective) when the toys took over our sessions. I have plans to use video more in the future for science and research projects.

Night Story Telling

One of the best creative projects we have ever taken on was started as a way for my kids to calm down before bed. We tell stories at bedtime. When we started, about two years ago, we told stories about what different animals may do with their day. Anything we wanted to share. No big deal, but a chance for my kids to create stories about animals – because that is what they were interested in. It was cute to hear them, sometimes they repeated themselves over and over, sometimes the animals were irritating, but it was a fun time for us together.

A few months into this routine, I started creating the character of Brownie the Bear, who was a marshmallow-eating bear, lived in the woods and stole marshmallows from all the campers. They absolutely loved this character, and now we have been talking about Brownie and all of his friends in the woods for well over a year. The campers loved Brownie so much that they now leave marshmallows for him and his friends to take and the animals leave presents for the campers in return.

He has had lots of adventures,  developed many friendships, the animal community has regular celebrations, they create art from the marshmallows, play tricks on each other and several animals with special powers go to a school of Hogwart’s for animals. In the autumn, the animals celebrate their harvest season of collecting marshmallows from the campers with a giant bonfire to roast them. They keep the marshmallows deep in caves to keep them fresh for the entire winter. They take the extras, dye them different colors, cut off one slice to get them sticky and stick them to the cave walls to make big beautiful mosaics.

Through this storytelling process, I have been able to take our writing lessons and make them come alive, learning what makes a story compelling. They have found toy animals to play the parts, created props and a stage to act out the scenes.

And, I have also used some of the characters in these stories to re-create some of their real-life events with friends or difficult situations to discuss what the animals would do in similar situations. We discuss how they would feel, what they would do and what their options are.  It is easier to discuss because they can externalize the situations using characters they know well and really care about.

[excerpt from my Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented State Conference presentation: Don't Fence Me In - Mastery, Creativity, and Adventure in the Home Education of Bright Children]

Giftedness is a term that can be a blessing to parents and a challenge when it comes to  navigating social and educational systems.  We want our children to succeed and have their gifts and talents nurtured, but with the current cultural views on giftedness, some parents just want to hide their children’s abilities. These parents may prefer to have a child that is “normal” and just fits in with their peers.

There are several books that describe gifted children and how to parent them.  One of the best books to start with is “A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children,” by James T. Webb, Ph.D., et. al. (2007).  They state that,

Parent’s uncertainty and ambivalence are often due to confusion as to what “gifted” means.  They may have never heard the term “gifted,” or if they have, they may mistakenly think that a gifted child is necessarily a genius or a child prodigy, or at least a child who is far brighter than others in all areas.

Another confusing factor is that parents often hear statements from teachers or administrators such as, “In our school, we believe that all children are gifted.” . . . Such comments are not only perplexing, they are also inaccurate.

 It (giftedness) can’t be separated out to deal with only when it’s convenient for others.  Giftedness cannot be overlooked or minimized; gifted children are fundamentally different.  

 Here are some of the definitions from various sources.

National Association For Gifted Children (NAGC) www.nagc.org

A gifted person is someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression.

Some of these abilities are very general and can affect a broad spectrum of the person’s life, such as leadership skills or the ability to think creatively. Some are very specific talents and are only evident in particular circumstances, such as a special aptitude in mathematics, science, or music. The term giftedness provides a general reference to this spectrum of abilities without being specific or dependent on a single measure or index. It is generally recognized that approximately five percent of the student population, or three million children, in the United States are considered gifted.

A person’s giftedness should not be confused with the means by which giftedness is observed or assessed. Parent, teacher, or student recommendations, a high mark on an examination, or a high IQ score are not giftedness; they may be a signal that giftedness exists. Some of these indices of giftedness are more sensitive than others to differences in the person’s environment.

It may be more difficult to identify giftedness in areas that can’t be tested easily by paper-and-pencil measures.

Howard Gardner (1983) in Frames of Mind, suggested that there are “multiple intelligences.”  The seven intelligences that he identified include:

Linguistic intelligence  – verbal ability

Musical intelligence - perceive distinctions and patterns of notes and rhythms, musical talent

Logical-Mathematical intelligence – deductive reasoning, abstract patterns

Visual-Spatial intelligence – visualize spatial dimensions, both internally and externally

Bodily-Kinethetic intelligence – physical awareness

Interpersonal intelligence – person-to-person communications and relationships

Intrapersonal intelligence – strong awareness of self, spiritual inner states, awareness

Expanding your ideas about what areas children may display exceptional abilities can help parents look beyond the traditional tests offered by schools to identify the “smarter” children who can perform well on written tests.  And, realizing that there are several areas of individual development can expand your options when designing a well-rounded educational experience for your gifted chid.  I believe it is important to examine the full range of human experience when searching for better ways to develop our potential.  This is the foundation of what I call, an Integral view to education and actualizing potential.

Here is an excerpt from the bio of Dr. James Webb from Great Potential Press: 

James T. Webb, Ph.D., ABPP-CL, has been recognized as one of the 25 most influential psychologists nationally on gifted education, and he consults with schools, programs and individuals about social and emotional needs of gifted and talented children. In 1981, Dr. Webb established SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted Children, Inc.), a national nonprofit organization that provides information, training, conferences and workshops, and he remains as Chair of SENG’s Professional Advisory Committee.  Currently, Dr. Webb is President of Great Potential Press, Inc.

Here is a link to SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted Children)

This week, the math assignments included learning how to tell time in 24 hour time, which I have always called, military time, since I used it during the years I was in the Air National Guard.

Sean was a little resistant to learning the new way to read time until I thought of a creative way to integrate it into their lives that made sense. Sean and Sophie often imagine they are secret agents and Sean has announced recently that he plans on becoming one when he grows up. The themes of agent life have become commonplace in our home.

I told Sean that if he wanted to become an agent, he would have to use 24 hour time to communicate with the other agents. I explained the reasons why they use that method of telling time to reduce errors in crucial moments, such as war plans and secret missions. We went through scenarios of what could happen if they didn’t use 24 hour time to communicate with each other. Their missions and people’s lives could be at stake if they got the time mixed up by not understanding if it was a.m. or p.m.  I also took the opportunity to share a few stories about my military days which fascinated them. I haven’t talked about those days much. Those personal stories added a new layer of meaning to these lessons.

All this really made sense to Sean and Sophie and they were very excited to learn something that secret agents relied upon in their communications. It lead to an engaging discussion. They have been using 24 hour time now for days.  And, I’m glad I could contribute to their training to become secret agents.

This was a small part of their lesson that could have been just another exercise in memorization. But, with a little creativity it can become a meaningful and fun new adventure that has become effortlessly integrated into their knowledge base and imaginary play.

Whenever possible, I look for ways to integrate their studies into themes and life experiences that already carry meaning for them. That way, the new information has something to hang on and becomes more permanent and meaningful.

Several gifted education authors talk about the creative characteristics of gifted children, from divergent thinking, to dealing with complexities to perceptions and learning styles, to having high sensitivities. These characteristics are ideal for the actualization of high creativity.

A gifted child’s view of the world is often non-traditional and divergent; he sees numerous possibilities hidden to others (Webb, Meckstroth, & Tolan, 1982)

Being able to see, hear, feel and experience aspects of life that most people miss is a necessary part of creative production (Dixon, 1983)

High levels of sensitivity may be what drives intellectual giftedness; they allow the child to pick up on vast amounts of input from his environment (Freeman, 1985).

Generally, when children are allowed to learn creatively, we unlock powerful and amazing learning potential (Rivera, 2002)

What does all this mean for me and my children? It means that we do not have to put our noses in books and worksheets to be learning and preparing for the future. We can relax about taking on creative projects that have sometimes felt like an indulgence of our time. We can relax and let the natural curiosity of the children take us to places we wouldn’t have thought of.

I place a much higher emphasis on exploring nature, of nurturing their natural abilities to closely observe differences in detail. I encourage their natural bent of divergent thinking. There is plenty of time for convergent thinking in our studies, and now I encourage, with equal emphasis, plenty of time for divergent thinking.

I attend to their observations of the world, ask more questions about what they see and feel. And, I describe to them the positive side of being highly sensitive and imaginative because of the creativity and beauty they can bring into the world. This is a completely different way of talking to and working with children than in previous generations that preferred to toughen children up and putting them down for pursuing creativity.

I pursue my own creative work  in writing, sewing, photography and whatever arts and crafts projects we try.  I let my kids see what I am doing and discuss it with them. We begin new kinds of art together and struggle through the learning process together. We appreciate the creative works of others, whether art, music, dance or drama. We love to go to plays and concerts. I try to add discussions before and after to increase their appreciation of the beauty of the performance and the hard work that goes into it.

[excerpt from my Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented State Conference presentation: Don't Fence Me In - Mastery, Creativity, and Adventure in the Home Education of Bright Children]